Thia: “You’re hunting something that can’t be killed.”
After the success of 2022’s eighteenth century set Prey, director Dan Trachtenberg has returned to the Predator franchise once more, this feature titled Predator: Badlands (2025), again coming up with a wholly different concept that transports the story in an engaging new direction.
Taking place about as far away as possible from his previous effort (a concept developed by Trachtenberg and Patrick Aison, the latter then writing the screenplay), this one opens on Yautja Prime, the home planet of the Predators (who are formally known as Yautja), where the audience meets Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi) – the weakling runt of the family who hasn’t earned his camouflaging cloak. . . which, if you known Predator culture, is not a good thing.
Despite being utterly competitive, Dek has as good of a relationship as can be expected with his older brother Kwei (voiced by Stefan Grube, acted by Mike Homik). . . who trains him away from their clan leader and unimpressed father Njohrr (Reuben de Jong).
After what can only be described as the worst of family fights, the unproven Dek finds himself banished and promptly stranded on the most dangerous planet of all – Geena. . . a locale even his father dares not land on.
With a chip on his shoulder, Dek plans to prove his father wrong and hunt the treacherous Kalisk – the beast to be most feared on a planet full of unbelievably dangerous creatures (and even grass). Instead of a Predator being on the prowl, for once one of them is completely on the defensive, until Dek randomly bumps into a half destroyed Weyland-Yutani corporation humanoid synthetic named Thia (Elle Fanning – Trumbo) that has been given human emotions and has been separated from her clone sister of sorts, Tessa (also played by Fanning).
As much as Dek has been programmed by his culture not to hunt with anyone, the quirky, ultra-knowledgeable synth is able to convince him that she will be a helpful tool for his journey to challenge the Kalisk.
Becoming a bizarre sort of buddy comedy, the one track minded Dek is mismatched with the emotionally savvy and Geena versed Thia, even more so when a weirdly cute lost creature latches onto them, now making them a three’s company of sorts. No matter how she tries, including explaining how wolves hunt, Dek doesn’t truly understand the concept of working as a team.
After some twists and turns, the so-called triumvirate end up separated. Leaving Dek with nothing but questions, will he simply continue to hunt his prize in the Kalisk? Has he learned anything from his intriguing time with Thia? Or, might he actually go after his newfound friends? And, if so, can he ever impress his father and earn his cloak?
Adding another new layer to the ever-growing sci-fi franchise, not only do we get a story of the burden our family can put on us due to their crippling expectations, but the audience also experiences the most playful of Predator stories yet. . . one with something well outside simply being a predator. Featuring moments of unexpected buddy action comedy, and dare I say, friendship, fear not, for there is still plenty of uniquely engaging action along the way as well. In fact, as the planet is so dangerous and adversarial, it’s fun seeing Dek adapt to this most dangerous game.
Despite being another critical darling and the biggest box office success so far in the franchise, Predator: Badlands lost money due to its cripplingly large budget. Despite that, it leaves itself open for a sequel, so audiences will have to wait and see what happens. Nonetheless, adding enough new fodder to the Predator legacy, in many ways, this narrative goes in the opposite direction of basically every other movie in this catalogue, making it a worthy watch for sci-fi fans (it’s got some playful twists and turns too). So, don’t let this one hide behind its camouflaging cloak, its necessity is the mother of all sci-fi invention.